“While so engaged as I was journeying to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests, at midday, O King, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining all around me and those who were journeying with me. “And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew dialect, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads’” (Acts 26:12–14).
Paul is in the midst of recounting his conversion story to King Agrippa. He has just shared his previous pattern of virulent hostility toward the Jesus movement (vv. 9-11). Verse 12 begins this way: “While so engaged…” In other words, on the day of his encounter with the Risen Lord, it was “just another day at the office” as we say. Things were going along just like normal but, by the time the day was over, things would be anything but normal. His life would be changed forever. “Come to Jesus” moments can be like that.
One gets the sense from the text that the Damascus road event was just the latest and, perhaps, most direct effort by God to get Paul’s attention. A goad was a pointed stick used to prod a stubborn ox to do the farmer’s bidding. A wise ox soon learns to yield to the goad while a stubborn ox kicks against it, inflicting more pain in the process. In some way, the Lord had been prodding the stubborn young Pharisee to yield to Him. Maybe it was some pangs of conscience as he mistreated others. Perhaps some questioning of his motives and actions in quieter moments. Who knows? The text doesn’t say. But however God was prodding, Paul kept kicking. Until now.
This text prompts me to consider my own life. Is God prodding me in ways that I am resisting? Is there something in my life He wants me to address or change? If so, I should yield instead of resist.
God loves you!
Mike
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